Improved Dynamic Positioning of High Speed Drilling Robots for Aerospace Composite Manufacturing

由于其多功能性和大工作体积，工业机器人手臂已越来越多地集成到航空航天工业中，以提高制造作业的效率和可靠性。波音温尼伯是加拿大最大的航空复合材料制造商，为波音商用飞机生产复杂的玻璃纤维和碳复合材料结构。这些复合结构中的一些的制备涉及通过高速机器人钻孔系统进行的大图案的小孔的钻孔。在此操作期间，机器人必须不断经历快速加速和减速阶段，这导致末端执行器（工具保持器）处的过度振荡。刀具振动导致几何误差、孔质量差，并且可能违反所需公差。本项目旨在发展被动及主动控制技术，以抑制高速机器人钻孔系统的结构振动。拟议的研究合作将产生系统化及可扩展的控制技术，使机器人制造系统能够以更高的速度执行操作，并提高准确性和可靠性。特别是，该项目的成果将帮助波音加拿大温尼伯保持国际竞争力，为他们提供基础知识，创新技术和HQP培训，使他们能够增加吞吐量，降低成本和交货时间，提高零件质量，并最终提高飞机的可靠性，安全性和成本效益。

Due to their versatility and large working volume, industrial robotic arms have been increasingly integrated into the aerospace industry to improve the efficiency and reliability of manufacturing operations. Boeing Winnipeg is the largest aerospace composite manufacturer in Canada producing complex fiberglass and carbon composite structures for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Preparation of some of these composite structures involves drilling of large patterns of small holes, which is performed by a high speed robotic drilling system. During this operation, the robot must constantly undergo rapid acceleration and deceleration stages, which lead to excessive oscillations at the end-effector (tool holder). Tool vibrations result in geometric errors, poor hole quality, and possibly, violation of the required tolerance. This project aims at developing passive and active control techniques to suppress structural vibrations in high speed robotic drilling systems.The proposed research collaboration will result in systematic and scalable control techniques which enable robotic manufacturing systems to perform their operations at higher speeds with enhanced accuracy and reliability. In particular, the outcome of this project will help Boeing Canada Winnipeg to remain internationally competitive by providing them with fundamental knowledge, innovative technologies, and HQP training to enable them to increase their throughput, decrease cost and lead times, improve part quality, and ultimately, enhance the reliability, safety, and cost-efficiency of airplanes.